Punisher: The End
by Jacen Miller
Summary: After Marvel's recent run of "The End" titles, I decided that it was long overdue for a Punisher version. Please note, this is MY take on things...


Prologue: Fallen Angels 

In the deep, dark recesses of New York City, in the year 2019, there lingers a constant veil of fear and dread, of which there is no hope of escaping. A blanket of evil descended over the ever-expanding metropolis, and the blame naturally falls on the population boom; filling the cities across the world with more and more scum to roam the street, and ruin the lives of others. 

The darkness has many forms in this strange new world, and none of them are pleasant. The night is their cover... their home. It is then that they come to life. 

Nearly all of this darkness is cast into the form of people. Human beings. People who cannot really be called people; a gang of muggers hanging out on a street corner, a drug dealer infecting the very veins of the city with his vile product, a convicted rapist hiding in a dark alley. They are all poor excuses for human beings, but remain as perfect harbingers of hate, cruelty and malice of the human spirit. They are what makes up the populous of New York City in the not-so-distant future...

These people are but a few examples of the deep-seated decay of the new-millennium human mind. New York is but a tiny fraction of the problem. Across the world, humanity's worst problems rage like an uncontrollable forest fire. Gunfire is a familiar noise to anyone living in even the smallest of cities. Wars are started and ended in the space of weeks, over something as petty and worthless as a trading agreement. People are dying - whether by force of nature, or force of man - every single day. Life for the human race has dissolved into a bitter nightmare...

Almost all of the few remaining historians agree - and they even pegged it down to a specific date - the trouble all began at 3:17 PM, on June 12th 2008. After several intense months of legal hearings, petitions and campaigns, a law was passed for the State of California that prohibited any and all 'crime fighting' activities outside of the police department. Vigilantes, superheroes - even the have-a-go heroes that stop robberies and muggings - they were all found guilty of breaking the law, and were sentenced as seen fit. The police had grown tired of playing second fiddle to loose cannons that did their job for them... and now they were fighting back. No longer were they going to sit back and watch as grown men in tights made their existence redundant... no longer. They saw these people as threats to society. They were unnatural people with unnatural powers. They didn't belong. The new law sparked action in neighbouring states, and in the course of a few months, superheroes were banned across the entire west coast. It took less than a year for controversial law to sweep the country, but it finally succeeded in making the United States of America a totally police-driven force. Any and all superheroes were expected to hang up their tights and masks, and let the police do their work...

Of course, many established superheroes resisted. Reed Richards, along with many of his high-profile business contacts, campaigned for the law to be repealed, and for the protectors of innocents to be allowed to do continue their life's work. He was, of course, denied his request, and was subsequently stripped of all properties and business assets, and was made bankrupt. The charge was conspiring to subvert the course of justice via vigilante actions. The sentence was life imprisonment in a specially designed prison, known as the "Slammer." On July 17th 2009, The Baxter Building, home and headquarters of the Fantastic Four, was razed to the ground, and the group forcibly disbanded. Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm were killed in an attempt to escape capture, but Reed and his wife, Sue, went quietly…

The Fantastic Four had been the first to fall.

The defeat of the Fantastic Four served as a beacon for all those who would attempt to eradicate any trace of superhuman activity in the world. What was once simply a deterrence for vigilante activity was now fast becoming nothing more than a nationwide witch-hunt. Abroad, many countries across the world were following the lead of the United States, and putting into place their own versions of the law. But closer to home, yet more figureheads were making a stand against the oppressive nature of this new way of life...

Professor Xavier, long a campaigner for mutant rights, came forward to offer a peaceful solution to the countries problems. Like Reed Richards, he attempted to solve the situation via diplomacy and peacekeeping. It did him very little good, however, as he was shot and killed by an unknown assassin during a speech to the UN. His killer escaped easily, and with no resistance. This sparked a furious reaction in his X-Men, and they promptly began to track this mysterious assassin down... but their plan didn't have a chance to bloom into fruition - the entire X-Mansion was stormed and raided by a huge force of many armed soldiers, resulting in many, many dead. In fact, the only body the authorities did not recover was that of the mutant feral known as Wolverine...

The fall of the X-Men triggered the landslide that would end the prosperity of humanity as we know it. The Incredible Hulk was finally cornered in the Grand Canyon, and he was finally destroyed. It took almost every single man and woman in the United States Army, but the deed was done.

Captain America was also hunted down, but no massive strike force was needed for this superhero; being a lifelong advocate for peace, freedom and the American Dream, Steve Rogers did not wish to go against the will of his country. He gave up willingly, and now serves a life imprisonment in the Slammer.

Tony Stark, aka the Iron Man, was forcibly removed of all his funds, research and projects. He died in the Slammer less than a year later.

Spider-Man and Daredevil were the ones to put up the longest fight. The pair remained in New York, refusing to relinquish their duty to the people. In the end, they went down in the same battle, fighting side-by-side - it took a relative army to do it, but finally, the last of the crime-fighting vigilante's were gone forever...

...or so they thought...


End file.
